A prominent member of Barack Obama's list of key government appointees is being blasted by an independent professor and an industry association for deliberately trying to create "public hysteria" with a warning that even the smallest of exposure to secondhand smoke could result in tragic consequences.

"The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your lungs quickly every time you inhale causing damage immediately,” Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said in releasing her recent report on smoking.

"Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage your DNA, which can lead to cancer," she said. "That one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack."

Florid language to be sure, but a renowned member of the Boston University School of Public Health and members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association say the statements are unsupported, unscientific and unreasonable.

"The mixed signals and misinformation coming from Dr. Benjamin's office lead one to question everything they say and do," said Chris McCalla, the legislative director for the trade association.

The industry organization for support cited the arguments from Professor Michael Siegel of Boston University's School of Public Health, who is not linked to the industry.

"It is simply untrue to assert that brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause such results," he said. "If there is no safe level of exposure to any carcinogen, that would include exposure to automobile exhaust, the sun's rays, benzene, radon in homes, arsenic in drinking water and many other everyday items."

Siegel, on his blog, explains he has 25 years of experience in the field of tobacco control, and spent two years with the Office on Smoking and Health at CDC, where he conducted research on secondhand smoke and cigarette advertising. And he's published nearly 70 papers related to tobacco.

The recent report from Benjamin follows a long history of reports from the government on the dangers of smoking.

Hers, according to her own department's fact sheet, states, "There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Any exposure to tobacco smoke – even an occasional cigarette or exposure to secondhand smoke – is harmful."

Her fact sheet on the report continued, "Low levels of smoke exposure, including exposures to secondhand tobacco smoke, lead to a rapid and sharp increase in dysfunction and inflammation of the lining of the blood vessels, which are implicated in heart attacks and stroke.

"The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your lungs quickly every time you inhale. Your blood then carries the toxicants to every organ in your body. The chemicals and toxicants in tobacco smoke damage DNA, which can lead to cancer. … Exposure to tobacco smoke quickly damages blood vessels throughout the body and makes blood more likely to clot. This damage can cause heart attacks, strokes, and even sudden death."

But the industry organization said its 2,000 members, primarily small family businesses that operate neighborhood cigar stores, said the statements seem more related to a political agenda than a scientific study.

McCalla said one of the first actions by the Obama administration was to slap another layer of tax hikes on tobacco products for a children's health care program.

Then the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act" came along, giving new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to attack smoking.

"Now, the Surgeon General is saying, in effect, that walking past a smoker on the street could cause a person to develop cardiovascular disease and cancer," the organization said.

But, "There is nothing in the report itself which … supports the assertions that a brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease or cancer. These assertions … have been manufactured to create a sense of public hysteria, but they are unsupported by any science whatsoever," Siegel wrote in his blog at Tobacco Analysis blogspot.

"This is the second time that the office of the surgeon general has misrepresented and distorted the science of … secondhand smoke. The press release which accompanied the surgeon general's 2006 report on secondhand smoke made the same false assertion," he said.

McCalla also noted that before her appointment by Obama, Benjamin was trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which contributes tens of millions of dollars every year to promote smoking bans and fund anti-tobacco groups in the United States and internationally.

"Why is this a potential conflict of interest? Because the foundation's sister organization is Johnson & Johnson, maker of Nicorette, a nicotine replacement product," McCalla said.

The government's report, "How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease," states cellular damage and tissue inflammation from smoke is "immediate."

At the time the report was released, Kathleen Sebelius, known as Kansas' pro-abortion governor before she was tapped for the federal office as secretary of Health and Human Services, said efforts to cut smoking have been stepped up.

Siegel said the truth is that "it takes many years of exposure before the process of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) can occur. If brief tobacco smoke exposure could cause heart disease, we would sadly see many young people in their 20s and 30s walking around with cardiovascular disease, and many dying from it at those ages. Even active smoking does not generally lead to heart disease unless you smoke for many years. Thus, it is simply untrue to assert that brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease.

"While [it] may be correct in suggesting that a brief exposure to tobacco smoke could cause a heart attack (although only in someone with pre-existing heart disease), it is completely false in claiming that a brief exposure can cause cardiovascular disease," he said.

"Frankly, I think the people who are going to be hurt by this report are smokers. While for the most part, nonsmokers will be scared by this news and will largely become more vigilant and more aggressive in their attempts to avoid the smoke, many smokers may be alienated by the suggestion that even a few whiffs of tobacco smoke could kill them. There doesn't seem to be any point in quitting smoking by that logic," he wrote.

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Dec. 16, 2010